The Truth About Scars
by magical-mystery-girl
Summary: Love was an irrational and painful thing. He had already experienced it once and by Salazar he never wished to experience it again.So why was it that when she called him her friend his heart stuttered in ways it had not for a long time? READ AND REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter…if I did all of our favorite characters ( you know who they are) would still be alive…

A/N: I've written in the Siriously Mione, Remus/Hermione and George/Hermione fan worlds, so I thought, why not write another fic for my other favorite fandom? So as a result of this thought, here is the first part in a two-shot story that ended up being a little long for a one shot… hope you enjoy!

FYI: any questions you have about the relationship between Hermione and Draco look up my other story _One Decision that Changed Everything_! ^_^

On with the story!

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The Truth About Scars

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"Check mate," he said, a small smirk pulling at the corners of this lips.

Hermione frowned and stared at the pieces, "No way!" she exclaimed, "I didn't play for two and half hours just so you could beat me _again_!" Hermione looked up from the wizarding chess board in the Hogwarts staff room to stare suspiciously at the potion's professor, "You cheated," she stated petulantly.

Severus Snape didn't bother hiding his smirk this time, "I may be a lot of things, Professor, but a cheater is not one of them. If you lost this game, one game in a losing streak I assure you must be a world record, it is because of your own strategic inadequacies."

Hermione shook her head, inwardly beaming; it had taken a long time for her to get the snarky professor to speak to her in such a relaxed tone. She studied him closely for a moment, he had changed after the war, not that many people would know it. Years ago Hermione couldn't even imagine him playing a friendly, yet still violent, game of wizarding chess with anyone, let alone the one know-it-all student he claimed to detest.

But now, after nearly a full year of her constant badgering, he was almost always up to a game with her, if for nothing else than the chance to deflate her ego a bit. Hermione was one among only six of the Hogwarts professors that truly respected Severus Snape and the things he had done for the war; but the only staff member with which he would ever consider relaxing around while in their presence.

The rest of the staff was less than enthused to find Professor Snape was once again a professor at Hogwarts, and many of them were quite outspoken in their disappointment that he had not died during the war.

"I want a rematch," Hermione stated firmly, after a couple moments of companionable silence, again, something Hermione had to work at for nearly a year before he felt comfortable enough to simply sit near one another quietly, no obligations, no necessary conversation topics, just pure relaxed silence.

Severus shook his head with a smirk and went about repairing his pieces, "If you are sure you can withstand yet another slaughter, who am I to-," Severus' voice cut off abruptly as he looked up towards the entrance to the staff room. His eyes darkened, and a dark frown pulled heavily on his lips, "I'm afraid not Professor," he suddenly changed his mind, his voice stiff, "I just remembered some papers I have to grade," he stood up and nodded stiffly at her, "I bit you good night, Professor," he stated and with a billow of his robes he was gone.

Hermione watched him go in startled confusion until she caught sight of the three female professors that just entered the room who were grinning maliciously at Severus as he attempted to stride by arrogantly. Those three had been the bane of her existence from the moment she arrived at this school as a professor nearly a year ago. Sure, they had been kind to _her_, friendly even, but it was the way that they treated Severus that quickly made her want to hex him.

They made jokes about him at the staff table, just loud enough that he could hear them, but soft enough the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, couldn't. They spread horrendous rumors about the wizard, and even gave house points to the students whenever they caught them mouthing off about the 'greasy bat of the dungeons', something Hermione did not tolerate in her own transfiguration classes.

Today they had been particularly horrible, vanishing most of his clothes while he sat at the staff table, leaving him open for everyone in the Great Hall to laugh at, which they all had done, all except those six professors who were the only people in the school who considered him a friend, whether he returned the sentiment or not.

Upon Severus' grimly embarrassed exit from the hall, thank Merlin for the staff entrance, Hermione had heard the three witches (with a b) begin to make up horrible stories about the various scars that had been revealed to all and sundry just moments ago, making them seem like frivolous things that were funny.

Irritation and anger had blinded Hermione, and she had strode over to the three and demanded that they go and apologize that instant or she would report them to the Headmistress, something she intended to do whether or not they actually apologized. But the three had simply stared smugly at her with unconvinced eyes and the leader of the group, Mildora Bothrop the current head of Hufflepuff, had arrogantly rose to her feet and sneeringly said, "You can't prove anything," and with that, she and her two lackey-like friends strode proudly from the Great Hall.

Hermione honestly didn't think that there had ever been more points deducted and detentions handed out in all the history of Hogwarts then there had been today, and not just from Severus. In fact, Severus seemed like a fluffy bunny compared to Professors Granger, Longbottom, Lupin, and Hooch. The point deduction didn't stop after classes either, Madame Pomfrey and Madame Pince, from the library, as well as the headmistress herself were constantly deducting points and handing out detentions.

Starting tomorrow morning, even though it was a Saturday, Hermione was certain Hogwarts would eventually, and quite easily be cleaned from top to bottom, without magic; that's how many students had been caught spreading malicious rumors about their potion's professor. Some of them had even had the gall to attempt to hex him themselves; something they were quickly disillusioned about when whichever professor happened to be around at the time caught them.

All in all the day had been absolutely dreadful. Hermione could honestly not blame Severus for retreating to the dungeons, as far away from these three witches as he could, as quickly as he had. Hermione stood, determined that even if they couldn't prove the three were responsible for this morning's actions that they would pay.

Subtly she pointed her wand at the three, who were now laughing amongst themselves about Severus' hasty retreat. The word liar was suddenly appearing on each of their foreheads, slowly fading from one color to the next. She flicked her wand and they found their skin also changing from one color to the next, though each change brought about the most horribly contrasting color with the words on their foreheads.

Their clothes suddenly disappeared, leaving them in their undergarments, much as they had done to Severus that morning, and immediately all three women began screeching, their voices several octaves higher than normal.

Hermione smirked and walked closer to the women, intent to follow Severus out of the room in distain, but she soon found herself clutched in the grasp of the astronomy professor, Arora. "You did this to us!" she wailed, and suddenly Hermione realized that their voices had been altered to actually _be_ several octaves higher. She looked around the room and her eyes immediately landed on Remus, sitting nonchalantly in the corner, reaching a book, a small mischievous smirk on his own face.

Hermione turned back to Aurora, who was still clutching her arm painfully, "You can't prove anything," she responded sweetly, before glaring at them and throwing Aurora off of her arm, " Whoever did it though _must_ know that the coloring charms won't come off for another three months, so I suggest you get used to it," she stated primly before whirling around and striding arrogantly out the door.

And straight into Severus Snape's chest. Hermione smiled weakly as she stared up at him, trying to decipher the look on his face; was he mad, frustrated, happy, pleased? She couldn't tell.

"You hexed them," his deep voice commented finally, no inflection to give away his emotions.

Hermione narrowed her eyes mischievously, "You can't prove anything," she told him, slightly worried that he could; he was Severus Snape after all.

"Why?" he asked, as if she hadn't said anything at all.

Hermione sighed and shrugged, "You're my friend, that's what friends do for each other," she eventually stated, as if it made complete sense.

The look on Severus' face said that it didn't, not at all, not to him. He frowned, but not in irritation, more like confusion, before taking one last look over her shoulder at the now closed door. His dark eyes dropped back to Hermione's for a split second, but before she could find herself getting lost in them, like she had noticed she was prone to do, he whirled around and strode away, his robes billowing behind him.

Hermione wrinkled her nose in irritation, "You're welcome!" she shouted after him, pausing before quietly murmuring to herself, "You have _got_ to teach me how to do that robe thing," Hermione looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling, before grabbing the edge of her own robe and spinning around, in an attempt to mimic his billowing.

"What on earth are you doing Hermione?" the headmistress's voice demanded, surprising Hermione.

Hermione felt a small blush spread across her cheeks, "I was just…" Hermione shook her head, "You can't tell me you've never tried to make your robes billow like his do," she gave up on trying to explain, and simply became defensive.

McGonagall couldn't refrain from smiling at the younger witches antics, "No, actually, that is something that only Severus can pull off I'm afraid," she said with a wink, making Hermione smile resignedly, "Now, would you happen to know anything about what happened to 'poor' professors Sinstra, Bothrop, and Cavenshire?" she asked mocking the names.

Hermione widened her eyes innocently and shook her head, "No, whatever happened?" she breathed.

McGonagall obviously knew it was her, but played along, "_Someone_ seemed to have place a jinx on them that makes their skin change color to mesh with the lovely word Liar that had been written on their forehead, and their voices are even more annoying now than they were before," she explained.

Hermione pretended to be surprised, "How is it even possible for their voices to be any more annoying than they already were?" she exclaimed, telling McGonagall without actually saying anything that the voices weren't done by her.

"Are you saying a certain moon friend of ours might have done this?" McGonagall asked, referring to Remus.

Hermione shook her head, "Oh no, Minerva, Remus would _never_ change people colors and write mean things on their foreheads."

McGonagall shook her head with a smirk and waved her hand in dismissal, "To bed with you Miss Granger," she said in the professor tone that she only used when teasing Hermione and her other former students.

Hermione smiled and turned away, intending to do just that. Along the way she allowed her mind to wander, remember things from both the past and present.

The war had been difficult, and it had taken many lives, but miraculously not as many as they had thought originally, for it turned out that there had been a particularly dark curse being shot around that looked like the Avada curse, but was really a spell that made the recipient appear dead for several days, hopefully long enough to get the person buried, technically still alive.

If Draco hadn't been on their side, thank Merlin for that one night years ago in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, they would have never known to wait a few days before burying their dead. This had potentially saved several people from a death more horrible than the one they were presumed to have had.

Remus, his wife Tonks, and Fred Weasley were among the most predominant recipients of this dark spell, leading to much joy and happiness from the Weasley's, Harry and herself.

Severus Snape had survived thanks to the quick thinking of both Draco and Hermione. Hermione, after she, Ron, and Harry had left the Shrieking Shack had quickly used her occlumency and legilimency abilities to tell Draco where to find his dying godfather and what he needed to bring so that he could save him.

Draco had, after finally calming himself from the near death experience in the Room of Requirement, immediately rushed to his godfather's side, effectively saving his life. The second he had been able to, he handed his godfather off to another member of the First Class DA, as most people still thought him to be simply a Death Eater, and not the actual spy that he was.

Severus had awoken nearly two weeks after the war was over, his neck still brutally scared, but otherwise completely intact. Embarrassed and outraged didn't even begin to cover the range of emotions Severus had portrayed when he found out that everyone that was in the immediate area when Voldemort and Harry had begun to duel now knew of his affections for Lily.

However, with much string pulling and the occasional _obliviate, _the Order and DA members had managed to keep most of the words spoken between Harry and Voldemort a secret, making sure that Snape wasn't publicly embarrassed for what Harry had said simply to anger Voldemort.

The repairs to the castle had been undertaken immediately following the death of Voldemort, and the students were sent home. The school was reopened that fall on September first, and many of the seventh year students from the previous year had decided to return to try and actually learn something this year. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco had been among this group of returning 'eighth year' students, as had many other members of the First Class DA.

It had been a surprise to many to find that Professor Snape had returned as potions master and head of Slytherin, as well as Professor Lupin, a favorite among students who remembered him, had also returned to Hogwarts with his family in tow as the new DADA professor and newly appointed Head of Gryffindor.

Hermione had been pleased to see that Severus had made a quick and seemingly effortless return to being Potions Master at Hogwarts, as she had harbored a crush on the man since the beginning of her second year. Even when she, along with everyone else, had doubted his loyalty she could not deny that there was something about the man that drew her to him. At first it had been his obvious intelligence, then she had seen him dueling Lockhart, and immediately that little school-girl crush that she had had for Lockhart was transferred to a more worthy recipient, though she didn't tell anyone else that.

Third year it was his bravery, and his determination, it took a lot to try and capture a supposed mass murderer and his werewolf friend. Thus began a cycle of sorts of things Hermione found herself attracted to in the dark man, intelligence, power, bravery, determination, and then when the Final battle had come around, courage, love, loyalty, steadfastness, brilliance, protectiveness…there just weren't enough words to describe the incredibleness of the wizard.

The day before she and the rest of the seventh and eighth years had graduated, McGonagall had pulled Hermione aside and asked for a meeting in her office. Upon attending the meeting Hermione soon found herself in delightful ownership of the position of transfiguration Professor.

Harry, Ron, and Draco all went on to become aurors, they started their training a month after graduation and finished it in two, three, and two and a half months respectively, breaking records, as it was supposed to take up to two to three _years_ to complete everything that they simply breezed through. Though, Hermione supposed, living on the run, in Harry and Ron's case, simultaneously hunting and hiding things, would definitely give you a head start on the other trainees. Draco, having played spy well, knowing occlumency and legilimency, having a back ground in dark arts as well as dark wizards, and the ability to disguise himself, also wasn't far behind in the requirements that Harry and Ron so easily fulfilled.

Upon her arrival to Hogwarts in August, a month before her first year as professor, Hermione was surprised and pleased to find that McGonagall had instated Severus as Deputy Headmaster, something that Hermione was certain didn't help his standing with several of his disrespectful peers. But it was because of this position of deputy headmaster that Hermione had found herself being taught various things every professor ought to know to command respect in the classroom from the man who, in her opinion, knew the most about it.

It hadn't taken Hermione long to figure out that despite the fact that Severus had simply been acting as a good little soldier, doing as he was told by the man who knew and trusted him most, there were very few people on the Hogwarts staff that actually trusted him.

As soon as he could Remus had pulled her aside to make sure that she wasn't going to be one of those distrustful members of the staff, he told her that Severus deserved respect and that he just wasn't getting it. Hermione had quickly reassured her friend that she had no intention now, or ever, of distrusting Severus Snape again. It had nearly broken her heart to do so last time, though she didn't tell him this.

When classes had started Hermione had swept into the room in her best no-nonsense way, a slight twist of Severus' first day entrance, Hermione wouldn't deny that, and she had quickly and with surprising ease, commanded the respect of the students.

She had been uncertain whether she would be able to actually do this as she had been in school with several of the students just months before. However, whether it was because of her status as a war hero or because she had helped many of them pass their final exams last year, they respected her. They asked questions when the time was right and took notes when they should, Hermione thought they were absolute angels.

Until one class, a month into her teaching; up until this point Hermione had only _given_ points, and she had never assigned detentions, but upon walking around her classroom to make sure her students truly understood the task they were set, she came across a set of Gryffindors, four of them, that were snickering over some piece of parchment they were passing back and forth. Without further ado Hermione had confiscated the parchment, fully expecting to find them talking about girls or the latest quidditch match, instead she found a list entiltled 'The Top Ten Best Ways For Professor S. Snape To Die'.

Let us just say that the boys had been incredibly repentant by the time Hermione was finished with them, and leave it at that.

It was following this instance that Hermione began to take more notice of Severus Snape than she ever had before. She noticed how the students alternated between sneering and mocking him behind his back, they pranked him whenever possible, and they did whatever they could to make his life miserable. To her surprise, it was the same from the other professors, and not just Bothrop and her small gang of idiotic professors either.

Harry had one night reluctantly told Hermione about what he had seen in the pensive on that one disastrous evening when Snape threw him out of his chambers. Hermione had been distraught when she finally figured out that Severus Snape had never had a friendly year at Hogwarts in his life. There had always been someone there to pick on him, prank him, make it so he always had to be cautious and could never let his guard down.

Following this revelation Hermione had determined both in her mind and to Remus and Minerva, that she would not give up until Severus Snape realized that he had at least one person in the world he never had to have his guard up against, and that person was her.

Remus and Minerva had been pleased with her determination, but saddened to know that no matter how hard they tried, they had both lost the opportunity to convince Severus that he could do the same around them, what with Remus having been a part of the group of boys that picked on Severus the most when they were in school together, and Minerva threatening to kill him.

And so Hermione's plan had begun. It started with simply saying hello in the mornings and at every meal. Then in the hallways she would smile her brightest smile at him, often resulting in a dark scowl in return, but that never stopped her.

Eventually she moved to actually sit in one of the chairs that seemed to be permanently unoccupied on either side of him. She had said nothing, but had simply sat next to him in what to her was a peaceful silence. The first couple of times she had done this Severus had removed himself from the Great Hall as quickly as possible. But several weeks of doing so, and her never even saying a word about it, lead to him staying for longer and longer periods of time.

Hermione would make sure to be in the staff room on the rare occasions that he would be, and she sat next to him at each and every meeting he was required to attend. Christmas had rolled around soon enough, and Hermione had gone out of her way to make sure that he had at least one present come Christmas morning. Her gift had been a case full of various rare and hard to find potion ingredients that she hoped he would enjoy. Two days following the gift Severus had sent her a small letter, with two words, _Thank you_.

That's when Hermione knew she wasn't failing in her endeavor; Severus Snape never thanked anyone for anything. And yet he had, just for her. He had thanked her.

Upon reaching his birthday, Hermione had struggled to come up with another present, and had ultimately settled on a potion's book she had found in the newly remodeled Grimmauld Place. It had been delivered to him on the morning of his birthday by a house elf.

He had shown up to breakfast spectacularly early that morning, wanting to be alone Hermione suspected, but she had made sure to be there when he arrived, wanting to be there to make sure he got the cake the house elves all assured her was his favorite. His surprise, irritation, joy, and pleasure, had all been on his face in a quick series of emotions when he had seen the cake appear before he finally managed to clamp down on them, leaving his face blank and unreadable.

Severus had taken the knife the elves had placed with the cake, which Hermione now knew to be a rum cake, and carefully sliced two pieces, one for himself, and to her surprise, one for her. Without saying anything he had handed the plate to her, and together they had shared his birthday cake in silence.

They had separated to go to their various classes with nothing further said, and, in fact, there had been nothing said between them at lunch either, though she still sat in that ever vacant seat next to him. It was at dinner that the quietly murmured words, "Thank you for the book," had reached her ears, so softly she hadn't even been sure that she had even heard them.

But with a kind smile she had cautiously placed her hand on his for a quick moment and replied with a "You're welcome," before easily removing her hand and returning to their comfortable silence.

From that moment on Severus had begun to respond to her greetings. Her smiles in the hallways were no longer scowled at but simply ignored, and she found him relaxing once she sat next to him at the various meetings and meal times, as if he expected her to decide she suddenly didn't want to sit next to him anymore.

One morning she had sat down next to him and found him reading a potions magazine, recalling a question she had come up with a couple of days ago upon reading the same magazine, she nervously asked him if he had had the same question, and if not, did he know the answer.

To her great surprise he had actually responded, stiffly, and a little exasperated, but a response nonetheless. After that she made sure to begin to ask him various questions she had, though only over lunch, so as to allow him the silence he seemed to enjoy both at breakfast and dinner. To be honest, Hermione thought Severus only seemed to answer several of her questions sometimes simply out of surprise that she had known to ask them.

After a particular and surprisingly long discussion about the latest controversial article in yet another potions magazine one afternoon, Severus had lurched to his feet and demanded that she follow him so that he could prove to her that the supposed 'dunderhead' that had written the article, and with whom she was pretending to agree with, was just that, a dunderhead. In a state of shock Hermione had done so, inevitably leading to her becoming a frequent visitor in his privet potions lab.

One morning Hermione was surprised by Severus when he began a conversation about some book that he wanted to know if she had read. This quickly lead to many more discussions at various other mealtimes in which Hermione felt herself being challenged both intellectually and verbally to be able to keep up with some of the things he was saying.

Eventually she found herself seeking out his company, even when it seemed he didn't exactly want her around, sometimes it was just for quiet brewing, other times for a companionable atmosphere in which to read. The times when she had shown up intending to read with him in his office, were interrupted by him one day standing up sneeringly and grumbling something about how if she was going to continue to force him to read with her, he was at least going to do it where he felt comfortable. And so he had brought her back into his living quarters.

Hermione was completely pleased with this invitation, knowing full well that the only people Severus had ever let back into his privet living area were Albus and Minerva. The room was dark, like she had expected it to be, but not overbearingly so; in the center of the room sat a nice overstuffed black dark gray couch, with dark green, comfortable looking armchairs on either side of it.

On the far wall rested a dark black wood desk with a nice chair Hermione suspected Severus did all of his own writing at. Bookshelves covered the rest of the wall, along with the other three walls, with the exception of the small space for a fireplace.

Without further words, Severus had taken one arm chair and she, the other; and they read.

However, in the days following his invitation into his living quarters, Severus seemed to come to a conclusion that that had been too far too fast, and began pushing Hermione away, snapping at and ignoring just about everything she said.

Eventually Hermione snapped, she yelled and she ranted, and she went on about how she was just trying to be _nice_, and how if he didn't want any friends then that was _too bad_ because no matter _what_ he did, even if he _killed_ her, she would haunt him until he accepted their friendship.

Two weeks following this announcement a short letter had arrived on her desk, "I'm sorry. Thank you." And things went back to the way they were.

Hermione had started her eighth year with a relatively secure knowledge of her own crazy crush on the potions professor, but by the end of her first year teaching she was pretty sure that 'crush' wasn't a crush anymore. It may even be considered love, something she found herself not at all objecting to.

Hermione sighed as she finally reached the portrait of a beautiful woman reading that was her room entrance, the only problem with loving a sarcastic potions master, was loving one that was in love with someone else.

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So I thought I would try my hand at separating my stories out into multi chapter fics. So here is part one in a two part story! I think you know the ransom I require for an update (which is ready to go whenever I get enough reviews…just say'n…)

So review review review! Much Severus/Hermione cuteness will be headed your way if you do!

REVIEW!

MMG


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I only wish I owned Harry Potter…sadly if wishes were fishes…

A/N: So here is the second and final part of the story, hope you all like it! Thank you for all the favorite story and story alerts, but most importantly thank you for all the REVIEWs… anyway, on with the story!

The Truth About Scars

Chapter 2

Severus Snape would not allow himself to feel those kinds of feelings again. Love, he snorted, was an irrational and painful thing. He had already experienced it once, and by Salazar he never wished to experience it again. It had been horrible.

So why was it that when the Granger girl had called him her friend, his heart had stuttered in ways that it had not for a long time? How had he allowed her to get close enough for a reaction like that?

If he was honest with himself, that wasn't the first time his heart, if he ever finally admitted he had one, had done something that was both pleasant and painful in his chest because of something that woman said or did. Didn't it stupidly insist on flying through the same acrobatic routine every time she came to sit near him at the table or in meetings?

No, Severus Snape would not allow himself to love again, he _couldn't_ allow it.

Yet it seems he already has.

Yes, despite his best efforts, Severus Snape realized that he was in love with Hermione. The first clue had been when he started calling her by that name, Hermione, in his head, rather than the ones that had been more common in her youth, such as the Granger girl, Granger, Miss Granger, or his favorite, the insufferable know-it-all. Somehow she had managed to worm her way into his life, and then proceeded to dig deeper, until she had firmly planted herself in his heart, without his permission.

Then again, when had she ever _needed_ his permission to do anything?

Severus couldn't repress the low growl he felt bubbling up in his chest, it was her fault he was out stalking the corridors at one in the morning instead of sleeping as he should be; for he not only had to deal with thoughts of her during the day, but now he was haunted by unrealistic dreams of him and her together at night.

He had been admittedly a little pleased when Minerva had decided upon Hermione for the new transfiguration professor, knowing that she was quite capable of teaching just about any class in the school, with the exception of divination and potions, of course, though he was even beginning to doubt the latter. Divination was just something he knew she would never even consider learning enough about in order to teach it.

But then the girl had decided to make him her pet project. Severus rolled his eyes. Sure Hermione hadn't known that that was what she was doing, but none the less, it was. He had been admittedly shocked when she had sat down in the empty seat beside him on that one fall morning; saying nothing, just acting as if her sitting there were perfectly normal.

Then sitting next to him actually meant greetings, he had heard more "Good morning Professor Snape" s than he ever wished to hear in his life. And the presents, why on earth would she give him presents, particularly ones she knew he would actually use? (unlike Albus and Minerva who insisted on socks and scarves respectively) First the rare potion ingredients for Christmas; and then the book, that rare, precious book that he often found himself wondering where she had found it, on his birthday. His _Birthday_! He couldn't remember the last time anyone had gotten him something for his birthday, besides Dumbledore of course.

But as if that weren't enough, when he had gone to the Great Hall as early as he possibly could on that day that he felt such mixed feelings toward, he had been surprised to find her waiting for him with a rum cake, his favorite, a secret he never told anyone. All day it had bothered him; why would a woman like _her_ even give his birthday a second thought?

He had decided that he should thank her, but when lunch time rolled around and she had sat unassumingly next to him, he had found himself incapable of expressing the thoughts in his mind. Finally that night, just as she was about to retire to her quarters for the night from dinner, he had quietly murmured the two words he hoped would be enough to express his gratitude, "Thank you."

Hermione had surprised him greatly by reaching out and touching his hand, yes, she actually _touched_ him…willingly, and replied with a sweet, "You're welcome." Not a word was said about it in the following days, but Severus admittedly felt as if something had changed. He no longer silently ignored her greetings at each meal; instead he began simply responding with low greetings of his own.

Then there were those smiles! Those blasted smiles that seemed to light up the hallway, or classroom, or anywhere she was really. A smile that should only be given to an angel it was so bright. And for some unfathomable reason she seemed to think that he was worthy of being a recipient of such a gift.

At first he had simply scowled, immediately hating the way his heart and brain started fighting over her reasons for giving him such a beautiful smile; his brain telling him there was an alternative motive, she was hiding something, his heart on the other hand, warned him that maybe the smiles actually meant something, that maybe she could be someone he could feel for.

After he began bestowing returned greetings upon the witch, he soon found himself incapable of scowling at her as he was used to doing when she smiled at him. Instead he found himself wanting to respond in some way, not by smiling back, Merlin no, but in some other way, a greeting perhaps or some other sort of acknowledgement.

Refusing to give into these weak impulses, Severus settled instead on simply ignoring her, leading in turn to pretending, at least to himself, that the slight dimming of her beautiful smile didn't twist his heart painfully.

In a regretfully constant weak streak, Severus found himself contemplating at nearly every meal whether or not the witch was suddenly going to come to her senses and realize that he was not the person she wanted to be spending her time with; that her time would be more appropriately spent with people who would actually respond to her in a way that Severus had not yet done, people such as Lupin or Minerva.

If it weren't bad enough that he found himself constantly pondering these thoughts, he found himself feeling almost unbearably tense at each meal and meeting in which he was surrounded by open chairs, but upon her inevitable arrival and still slightly surprising decision to remain sitting next to him, he would immediately find himself relaxing, pleased that for at least one more hour she hadn't changed her mind.

Contrary to popular opinion, he was actually a very observant person, something that came with being a spy for so many years. So naturally he had noticed the cow Bothrop and her gang snickering and gossiping about whatever non-relationship existed between him and Hermione. They weren't the only ones wondering either, he often caught others, such as Lupin and Minerva, shooting him odd little glances out of the corner of their eyes.

However, he couldn't seem to bring himself to tell her to remain as far away from him as possible. He would sometimes be convinced by his mind to do that very thing at night, but upon her arrival at the breakfast the next morning his heart, the supposedly long dead organ, would do a painful jerk at the thought of not having her next to him at meal times and losing those rare moments of kind human interaction he was so unused to, and so he would push aside the mutterings of his mind and focus purely on eating whatever it was that was placed in front of him.

One morning the admittedly pleasant silent mealtime was broken when Hermione asked a question, startling him from the potions article he was reading. But to his surprise it was _about_ the potions article he was reading. He had answered her question as quickly and as shortly as he could, eager to return to their silence, not quite understanding why she had suddenly changed the routine.

He quickly found out that this change of routine was to become the _new_ routine. Every lunch, without fail, she would ask him some question that would require an answer longer than the monosyllabic answers he gave to everyone else. Severus quickly found that he looked forward to these questions, as it was a rare thing for him to be able to hold an at least semi-intelligent conversation with someone.

He often found himself surprised that she even knew to ask the questions she did; they were such intense potions questions, something that a transfiguration professor didn't even have to give a second thought to, and yet she did. Not once did it seem as if her enthusiasm to receive answers and learn from him was forced, leading him to believe that perhaps she really actually did care to know the answers to the questions she asked.

One night he had been up late pondering something he had read in a potion magazine that day, and he found himself wondering what Hermione had thought of the article. The errant thought had shocked him, and he had quickly squashed it. It came back the next morning when Hermione joined him with the traditionally happy "Good morning Professor."

He had looked up at her and responded in kind, paused for a split second, then his mouth, running for the first time far ahead of his mind, asked her whether she thought the mixture of mandrake and pixie wings would react the way the one writer had said they would, or if they would do something more spectacular.

Hermione's face had been one for the books, the clear astonishment and pleasure at his having addressed her with a question first, and not even at lunch. Eagerly she had responded, with an intelligence and knowledge that far surpassed his expectations of her in the area, leading to a short discussion of the topic that lasted for nearly five minutes, a record for them.

After that he never hesitated to ask her questions, and she in turn never hesitated to do the same, leading to a flood of questions that both startled Severus and stimulated his mind, for some of her questions were open ended questions about his opinions on this or that, or his theories about what would happen if they did this thing some other way.

Eventually the questions began spreading from the topic of potions to other things such as politics, quidditch, something which they were both surprised to find the other was quite knowledgeable about, as well as various charms and transfiguration theories.

He soon found that their conversations would last longer than the allotted time for whichever meal they were at at the time, leading him to hesitantly invite her back to his office to continue, though the first time he had done so he had more demanded than invited, he would admit, but hesitancy was most certainly a word that could describe his inner feelings at that moment. Thankfully he had only needed to extend the 'offer' once, as she simply rose to follow him to his dungeons after the meals in which their conversation was particularly scintillating from that day forward.

Soon enough he began finding her coming down to talk to him outside of meal times. Hermione would sometimes come down before a meal and talk with him until, during, and after the meal. Even when his responses were sometimes shorter than was probably polite, she continued to seek out his company.

One day she had even dared to ask him if he would allow her to brew, surprising him as he hadn't thought her love for potions had been strong enough to want to brew in her leisure time. Against his better judgment he had allowed her to do so, giving her an easy enough potion to complete. But like everything else Hermione had done that year, this had quickly become something that happened quite frequently.

When they weren't brewing or discussing various subjects in his office and privet labs, they were reading together. The first time they had done so had been surprising enough to say the least. He had been quietly reading in his office and hadn't heard her come in. The only consolation in this was the explanation she had given him that Draco had shown her once how to move silently, and she had decided to see if it would work on him. So she had snuck into his office and gently placed herself in one of his chairs and quietly began to read.

He had been surprised to find her sitting there, directly across from him, acting as if it were an everyday occurrence for her to read in his office. Eventually this _did_ become an everyday occurrence; until one evening, against his better judgment he had snapped something about needing to be comfortable while he read and had gruffly lead her to his privet rooms, where they had each sat down without a word and continued with their silent reading.

For the life of him Severus couldn't explain what had possessed him to do it, but at the time suddenly shoving her away from himself seemed like the only way for him not to be completely embarrassed by his forward, and probably unwanted, attentions. He had realized that he was letting her in far too quickly, and he wasn't comfortable with how comfortable he was with her.

So he had ignored her, he intentionally went out of his way not to be around when she came to the various meals, he never went in the same places he knew she would be, he warded his office, privet labs and privet rooms against her… and suddenly he was alone again.

Severus had expected to feel immense relief the day she wasn't involved in his life anymore, instead he felt horrible. It was almost as if he was personally jabbing himself in the heart with a needle, and it was most certainly _not_ pleasant. But his pride refused to let him change his mind, it was better for him if he was the one to cut her off, rather than the other way around. He knew, intellectually, that it would inevitably happen, even to this day he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak, and for the day to come that she came to her senses and no longer wanted anything to do with him.

Hermione had gone home for the Easter holiday, but when she came back…the saying 'hell hath no fury…' comes to mind. Hermione had stormed down to his rooms the day before classes were to resume, and with a quickness that still astounded him to this day broke through every ward, charm, hex and spell he had placed on his rooms.

Severus hadn't even had time to recognize that his wards were being tampered with before she burst through his door and stood angrily before him with a flushed face, crazy hair that seemed to crackle with magic, and flashing hazel eyes she had stared him down. In retrospect he is certain that it was at that moment he first recognized her eyes as being anything more than simply beautiful, they were mesmerizing.

She had yelled and shouted about many indiscernible things. He had gotten lost after "Severus Snape, I was only trying to be your friend…blah blah blah…" or at least that was how it seemed to him. Friend? Him? She wanted to be his friend? She wanted to be _his_ friend? His _friend?_

He had stared blankly at her after her comment, thoughts like these running rampant through his mind. A friend, how long had it been since someone had actually wanted to be his friend? Not since Lily, even then he sometimes wondered… suddenly his attention was returned to the woman, "And no matter how hard you try, Severus…yes, from this moment on I am only ever going to call you by that name… you _will_ be my friend eventually! I will _not_ give up until you realize that there is at least _one_ person in this world who gives a crap about you! You can push, shove, threaten and curse and even _kill_ me, but you will _never_ get rid of me, Severus, _never!_"

And with that Hermione had given him one last glare before retreating from his rooms as quickly as she had come, leaving Severus with millions of racing thoughts, none of which made any sense. It had taken him two weeks of wrestling with his pride to finally write a short letter to her, charming it to appear on her desk, "_I'm sorry, thank you."_ That was all it had said, but to him it had been as if it had been torn from him without his permission.

The smile she had given him when he finally managed to make himself remain at the dinner table until she got there immediately changed his feelings on the matter but he was in no way inclined to make the friendship, if you could call it that, any easier for her to reach. If she wanted to be friends with him then she would have to be friends with every part of him, snark and all.

To his surprise, she hadn't given up like he had dreaded she would, and to this day she continued. Slowly bringing the timid and mildly friendly side of him, (unfortunately he did have one) out for her, and her alone, to see.

Despite her constant use of his first name,(which admittedly he loved hearing from her lips) never once did she mention the word friend around him again.

Until today. Until this thrice cursed day.

Severus growled as he remembered the humiliation the three cows had bestowed upon him. Perhaps he had deserved it, but that didn't make it any more pleasant to endure. Having his scars revealed to everyone, most importantly to Hermione, had never been on his list of things to do, and yet it had happened.

To his great surprise he found that he was being defended, quite adamantly, and not just by Hermione. Merlin knows he would have at least understood if Hermione had verbally scolded the students in his defense, but for Lupin, Minerva and Longbottom to do the same? That was something he had never even contemplated. And with such a vengeance, it was startling, and a little humbling.

Naturally he had been in a bad mood when he had entered the staff room, fully intending to simply find Hermione and drag her down to his dungeons to converse with him, having found his solitude wasn't as pleasant as it used to be, instead he found himself once again wrapped up in a game of wizarding chess with the witch.

It was a struggle, be assured…not to win within five minutes. Hermione was an absolutely horrible player, he had discovered this the first time they had played in an attempt to prove that chess was helpful in strategizing. Her atrocious chess abilities though may have something to do with her experience with the giant version of the game as a first year. Yet despite her clear lack of talent, there was hardly anything he enjoyed more than a game of wizarding chess with her, even if the true challenge in the game was trying _not_ to win.

Severus' felt his fist clench, he was going soft, he could feel it. He went out of his way to converse with Hermione, to simply be in her angelic presence; he even went out of his way to drag out a wizarding _chess game_ just to spend time with her. He knew, without even having to think too hard about it, that he would do anything for her. She had been true to her word, and he easily found himself considering her a close friend, something he now admitted to himself he had never had before, not even with Lily.

He had seen the three witches enter the staff room that evening and had exited as quickly as he could, immediately recalling his school boy years when he would do the same around the Marauders. He had stiffly walked a few paces down the hall before deciding to turn back and complete his original mission in asking Hermione to come with him, only to find her already otherwise occupied…hexing the three annoying witches.

Severus had felt his heart practically soar with joy at her obvious defense of him. Part of him, however, demanded that he storm into the room and tell Hermione to back off, that he could fight his own battles, but the other part of him, the part that was eager to be Hermione's friend, told him not to do anything, to let her defend him, it didn't mean she thought him incapable, it meant she cared.

Something he foolishly hoped was true.

Then the woman had run into him on her way out, and she had said those words, called him her friend, and he had completely forgotten his intended mission. Without a second thought he had turned on his heel and strode away, absently noting she had shouted something after him, but not knowing what.

Now, as he stalked around the castle at one o'clock in the morning, his mind wouldn't shut up, it was constantly at war with itself, telling him he was in love with her, then proclaiming that he was incapable of such an emotion.

Silently Severus rounded a corner and immediately had to reach out his hands quickly to catch the person that had bumped into him. "A student out of bed? Will wonders never cease?" he stated in his silky you're-going-to-get-it voice.

"If I were a student I would have been much more obvious Severus," the voice of none other than the woman occupying his thoughts stated breezily, clearly trying to rid her body of the excess adrenalin that had begun pumping at the movement of her body toward the ground at a breakneck speed. She lit her wand and smiled up at him.

Severus felt his heart beat pathetically quicken. "Professor Granger," he murmured, his voice softening, "What on earth are you doing out of bed at this time of night?" he asked, not that he cared.

"I could ask you the same thing _Severus,_" Hermione replied with a small smile, her eyes dimming as she recalled whatever reason it was that brought her out of bed. Severus said nothing and simply stared at her, knowing she would eventually tell him. She sighed, how was it he knew her so well without even trying? "If you must know, I had a nightmare," she eventually told him, "I couldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to patrol the hallways."

Severus looked down at the young woman, _'Friends' _his mind murmured, repeating her earlier comment; what would a friend do in this situation? …How was he supposed to know? he snapped at himself, he didn't have _friends_.

He hesitated before haltingly asking, "Do you…want to talk about it?" that seemed like a friend-like thing to say right?

Hermione blinked up at him, a hopeful twinkle in her eye, not at his words, but at the implications behind them, maybe he would finally start being a more active participant in their friendship, even if it little gestures such as this. Slowly she nodded, "But not out here where students like _Mr. Finchly and Mr. Crane_ could overhear us," she agreed softly, with the exception of the two names which were said rather loudly as she lifted her wand, pointing it in a corner over Severus' shoulder.

Severus turned around, and sure enough there were two startled looking students starting stupidly at them. He mentally cursed; he had been so wrapped up in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed them.

"What do you two think you are doing out of bed at this time?" Hermione demanded in her best professor voice, a sound Severus was surprised to realize that he had never heard before, it was quite…severe.

The two boys hesitantly stepped toward her, as she had taken two steps beyond him to glare more pointedly at them, "Nothing Professor Granger," Mr. Finchly stated, sending a small sneer at Severus when he thought Hermione wasn't looking.

Severus merely raised an eyebrow in reply, trying not to let himself recall the reason for the sneer from the student.

"The truth, Mr. Finchly," Hermione snapped, her wand intentionally raised into a position that would leave the boy seeing spots the second her wand was turned from him.

Finchly looked at his friend, neither said anything, and Hermione waited. _Severus_ even grew uncomfortable at the look of irritated patience on the younger professor's face, she looked as if she could and would wait all day, or night as the case may be, for their answer, and that no matter what answer they gave her there would be punishment.

"There was a bet," Mr. Crane suddenly squeaked, obviously the weaker minded of the two.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "What bet, Mr. Crane?" she asked in a deadly calm voice.

Mr. Crane hesitated before dropping his head and speaking again, "A bet to see who could pull the best prank on Snape," he mumbled.

Hermione's face hardened, and her eyes flashed, surprising Severus, "_Professor_ Snape," she corrected in a hiss, "Who, may I ask started this _bet_?" she asked her voice tense with anger.

The boys both stared at their feet, and Severus studied them, they were both fourth years, he knew, and Hufflepuffs; suddenly he had a pretty good idea who started the bet, surprising himself with how unsurprised he was by the conclusion.

"I asked you who it was, Mr. Crane," Hermione repeated in a low voice, making both boys flinch, and Severus to come to the conclusion that perhaps he didn't know much about Hermione's relationships with her students at all; the boys seemed to clearly fear her.

Mr. Crane mumbled something, but neither had heard him, "Speak up, Mr. Crane," Hermione ordered stiffly.

"Professor Bothrop," Mr. Crane said louder, still not daring to look at them, "She said she would give the person who pulled the best prank on Snivillus, her word not mine, five galleons and twenty house points. It was the same for you, but no one-," Mr. Crane suddenly stopped talking.

Hermione was livid, how dare that little…she took a deep breath trying to calm herself, deal with the students first then the idiotic professors, "Fifty points from Hufflepuff," she said firmly, "_Each._ And detention for the rest of the month," both boys began complaining immediately, and Hermione's eye flashed, "With Mr. Filtch! Any more arguing and it will be for two months, now get to bed, the both of you!" she commanded, pointing her finger in the direction of the Hufflepuff common room.

Severus stared at the angered woman in surprise, that was quite harsh, even by his standards, "Was that really necessary Professor?" he asked airily, thinking that she was mad about the bet placed on herself.

Hermione turned to him with an incredulous look in her eyes, "_Yes it was necessary_ Severus!" she exclaimed, "That absolutely wretched woman placing a bet about who could prank you the best!" Hermione couldn't speak and turned on her heel and stalking off in the direction of his quarters.

Severus followed her in a daze, she was angry on _his_ behalf? Didn't she hear the boys? Bothrop had encouraged the students to prank _her_ as well.

Hermione spoke the password that had taken her months to acquire the privilege of knowing, and burst into his living area unceremoniously. Without thinking she jerked off her outer robes as she normally did when she came into Severus' privet rooms, and toed off her shoes; placing the robe on the back of the chair that had quickly become hers when she had started to visit and read with him here, and kicking the shoes under the edge of the same chair.

With a huff she threw herself down onto the comfortable seat and glared at the embers in the fireplace, not noticing Severus' intense gaze on her form.

She was in her pajamas, he noted, startled. She wore a long loose pair of dark gray silk pajama bottoms with a dark green tank top with a snake on the front wrapping around the silver words '_I kissed a Slytherin_'. Severus couldn't contain a smirk, "Where did you get that shirt?" he asked in amusement.

Hermione looked down and suddenly blushed, looking horrified at her state of undress, "I—um… your godson, actually," she stuttered, " Draco gave it to me as a sort of joke," she explained, "He seemed to think it would be funny to see Ron and Harry's reactions when I wore it."

Severus nodded, it was still surprising to him to hear people, particularly Gryffindors, speak about Draco in such kind terms. He moved to sit down in his own chair, and realized that he was still wearing his own robes, something he never did in his own quarters, and she knew it. Reluctantly he removed his robe, revealing that he had previously removed his black waistcoat, leaving him in his long, billow sleeved, white button up shirt.

If Hermione thought this was odd she said nothing, but her look seemed to belay her approval of something, though of what Severus couldn't be sure, despite that niggling thought in the back of his mind that wanted to believe it was because of his appearance.

"You took quite a few points off of those _poor_ boys," Severus commented, lowering himself regally into his own chair across from hers, the word poor was said mockingly with a sneer, "And detention with Filch? Was that really necessary for being out of bed so late?"

Hermione looked incredulous, "Again, it was most certainly necessary Severus. They can't get away with actually sneaking out of bed to try and hex their professor," she stated vehemently.

Severus raised his eyebrow, "And would you care to tell me why they seemed to fear you like they did?" he asked as one would ask about the weather.

Hermione ducked her head and winced, "I wasn't exactly the kindest professor today," she told him, though her voice said that she didn't actually care that she hadn't been nice to her students.

"How so?" Severus replied, curious as to what could have the witch acting so out of sorts.

Hermione sighed and lifted her head, knowing that she might as well tell him, he wouldn't stop badgering her until he found out. It's not like it would be something that was difficult to figure out anyway, all one had to do was walk by the hourglasses that held the house points.

"I deducted over six hundred and seventy three points total, and handed out more than thirty seven full months worth of detentions and another forty two week detentions," she told him reluctantly, "All in one day. They all seem to hate me now. Particularly Gryffindor, as nearly two hundred of those points came from them."

Severus' face showed his astonishment for the first time, "What on earth for?" he demanded.

Hermione got defensive, "Well it wasn't like I was the only one deduction points and handing out detentions now was I?" she snapped, standing up and moving towards one of the bookcases on his wall, her back to him. She ran her fingers lightly over the spines of the books in an attempt to calm herself, only pausing momentarily when she felt Severus try to pry into her mind, "_You know it's not polite to listen to other people's thoughts_," she commented lightly in Severus mind, using her own legilimency skills against him for the first time, and suddenly the probing stopped.

Hermione slowly turned around to look at Severus' astonished face with a raised eyebrow and a small smile, "Your godson is quite the teacher," she told him lightly, speaking out loud and reaching her hand up to tap her temple, "He taught us occlumency and legilimency. Quite the accomplishment I'd say, considering he had the patience to actually show Harry, Ron, and even Neville, what to do."

Severus stared incredulously at her, not saying anything. His mind was whirling though, Potter, Weasley, and _Longbottom_, knew occlumency? "_Yes_," Hermione's voice suddenly commented in his mind, her back once again turned to him. Severus blinked, mentally throwing up his own occlumency walls, how did she do that? Speaking to someone in their mind was something he had thought to be impossible.

"Draco had been alarmed to find out that Harry was so closely connected to Riddle, and had immediately insisted on teaching him occlumency, all the while wondering why you or Dumbledore hadn't already taught him the skill. I reassured him that you had, but that Harry had been unreceptive to your teaching methods, but that he was welcome to try. So he taught Harry and I, and in turn we taught the rest of the First Class DA," Hermione explained how they had learned.

She turned back to look at him, "_Even though your walls are up, I can still push my thoughts into your mind. It is something Draco and I had experimented with during our practice sessions, eventually going on to show the others how to do it. It saved your life,"_ she told him gently, her eyes looking at something over the top of his head.

Severus looked quite startled, "What do you mean it saved my life?" he retorted, not knowing how to respond to this development at all.

Hermione worried her fingers together, "When you were…dying… in the Shrieking Shack, I was shouting in Draco's mind various instructions of antidotes, potions, and first aid things to bring to you. When we had to leave, the noise that Ron and Harry thought were Death Eaters, technically really was, I suppose, but it was only Draco, coming to save your life. You didn't wake up until two weeks later, and I don't know if Poppy ever knew Draco had saved you, or if she did, I don't know if she ever told you."

Severus shook his head, "_Draco_ saved me?" he murmured, his eyes dropping to the carpet, "You _told_ him to save me?" he repeated, "Why?"

Hermione looked perplexed, "Why wouldn't we?" she responded.

Millions of reasons swam through Severus' mind as he tried to sort out his thoughts, "I was evil," was the reason he finally picked out of the million.

Hermione frowned, "Draco knew much more than you gave him credit for," she told him softly, "He knew all along that you didn't truly wish to kill Dumbledore for You-Know-Who, and through the two way journal he gave me he explained it all to me. He wished that there were some way he could have told you everything, but he couldn't risk someone overhearing or something else happening," she sighed.

Severus couldn't take it in, "I deserved to die," he murmured, and suddenly Hermione was kneeling in front of him looking up into his face with a determined flash in her eyes.

"Don't you _ever_ say something like that again Severus Snape!" she commanded, "That is a stupid thought, and I don't even want you to think it! You most certainly did not deserve to die, don't think that."

Severus suddenly burst to his feet, this conversation was getting to be almost too much for him, "What did I have to come back to Hermione?" he demanded, unaware of the fact that he had just called her by her given name for the first time, "A life of ridicule? Of constant hatred? A life where I am constantly being pranked and sneered at? Did you not _see _what happened at breakfast Hermione? Didn't you see those horrible scars? Everyone else sure as Salazar did!" he exclaimed in anger, running his fingers tightly through his hair.

Hermione stood, but didn't move any closer to him, "I saw," she said softly, and he didn't let her continue after that.

"Then you saw the horrible reminders of my past, of my mistakes, of every dark moment in my life! They are hideous and ugly and disgusting, and now everyone in the school knows that I have them! You have no idea what it's like to hate your own skin so much!" he growled.

Hermione's eyes sparked, "Oh I don't, do I?" she snapped, stalking over to him. Staring him dead in the eyes, once again absently trying not to drown in them, "You don't think I know what it feels like to hate your own skin?" she exclaimed, "Look at this Severus!" she demanded, lifting her left arm and holding it out for him to see, "Do you see that? That wretched word, forever etched into my skin," she hissed, before turning around and lifting her shirt up in the back, "What about these?" she demanded as she turned and revealed her equally scarred stomach.

Severus openly gaped at the crisscrossing patterns across her back and stomach, he had no idea… "Hermione…" he croaked.

Hermione dropped her shirt and whirled back around to face him, "Scars are not who you are, Severus," her voice was suddenly soft, her eyes sincere, "They are who you _were_."

Intently Severus watched Hermione as she stared closely at him, earnestly pleading with her eyes for him to believe her words. Without thinking he reached out and lifted her arm for him to study, gently smoothing his fingers over the slightly bumpy and stretched skin that marred her arm.

Suddenly he seemed to realize what he was doing and his eyes widened as he quickly dropped her arm and moved away from her. People didn't like him to touch them, he didn't want to make her uncomfortable around him; inwardly Severus cringed, he shouldn't have touched her.

Almost exactly as he was beginning to allow himself to sink into his habitual self loathing he felt Hermione's long fingers wrap around his forearm, gently turning him back to her. Surprised by the lack of revulsion on her face Severus simply stared down at her, trying to figure out why she wasn't yelling at him. He had gone out of his way to make sure that he never touched her, despite his desperate want to do so, because he didn't want her to suddenly realize just how disgusting he really was. But it was inevitable.

Or that's what he thought, until her fingers were suddenly sliding up his arm to gently brush across his jaw as she slowly lifted herself up on her tip toes, her gaze locked on his lips. She was going to kiss him, he realized in surprised elation.

His eyes gently searched her own, looking for any kind of deception, any sort of mocking laughter. Finding none, he couldn't stop himself from hurriedly lowering his lips to hers, kissing her with a fervor he hadn't known he possessed.

Hermione's hands, her amazing, talented, long and slender hands, moved to the back of his head, gently pulling him closer to her, even as his own arms slipped around her small waist to do the same. They kissed for who knew how long, all Severus knew was that it blessedly seemed like forever, and that he never wanted to stop.

But as Hermione pulled away and gently pressed slow lingering kisses along his jaw, Severus couldn't help but think that this was pretty nice too. Then he felt her fingers slip from his hair and begin to undo the top buttons of his shirt as her lips moved further down the side of his neck, gently pressing against the ugly bump of the scar from the snake's fangs on his neck.

"No," he murmured, trying to gently disentangle the woman from him.

Hermione pulled back momentarily, her fingers not halting their quest, and she said nothing, just looked simply up at him, something shining in her eyes that he thought resembled and emotion he hadn't allowed himself to believe she could ever feel for him.

Slowly Hermione moved closer, rising up once more, but not far enough to kiss his lips. Her fingers finished their project and slid smoothly up the small gap in between the edges of his shirt, lightly trailing her fingers up his bare chest over several of his own crisscrossing scars, making Severus force a shuddering breath from his lips.

Gently Hermione's lithe fingers pushed the high collared shirt away from his neck and she leaned forward to once again kiss the scar. Kissing it once, twice, three times; clearly trying to make a point.

"Don't," Severus murmured again, his voice urgent, trying once more to pull Hermione's attention away from the worst of his scars without scaring her away, but she didn't stop, she continued caressing the scar lovingly with her lips and fingers, ignoring his quiet murmurs pleading with her to stop, though for some reason he did nothing else to discourage her.

Hermione was surprised when Severus actually let out a small whimper of pleasure as she found a particularly sensitive spot just on the back edge of one of the fang bites. She gently kissed it once more and found that it lead to yet another whimper.

She pulled back with a frown and looked up at him gently, seeing his eyes looking dark and tormented. Silently she stretched up and kissed his lips once more, she didn't like seeing such a powerful man reduced to whimpering, not by her own hand or anyone else's; not like that.

Hermione gently tried to shove every ounce of love and concern she felt for the brave wizard into her kiss, kissing him slowly at first, then picking up pace as the kiss grew more passionate. Gently Hermione pulled away from him, looking into his eyes and finding them looking faintly bewildered.

Severus suddenly moved away from her and stalked to his chair, dropping his body heavily in the soft seat, placing his head in his hands as he rested his elbows on his knees, "Why are you doing this Hermione?" he asked moments later, his voice strangled.

Hermione frowned and hurriedly moved to kneel in front of him once more. She reached up and gently pried his hands away from his face, but despite the ease with which he allowed her to remove his hands, he didn't look up at her, he refused to let himself be so open for her to see.

"Severus," she breathed, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand at attention, "Please look at me, I didn't mean to anger you," she pleaded, certain that that was why he wasn't accepting her advances, "I won't do it again, just please let us go back to-,"

"To what Hermione?" Severus demanded, as his head jerked up, his eyes darker than she had ever seen them, and looking far more tormented than she ever thought possible, "To unrequited feelings, to hoping for something like this to finally happen, only to find out that it isn't real?"

Hermione was sure her face was revealing her confusion, "You think this isn't real?" she exclaimed, "What, you think I'm kissing you for the heck of it, for no other reason than to _spite_ you?" Hermione sat back on her heels and earnestly lowered her voice, "I love you Severus!" she murmured, "I could _never_ do that to you."

Severus looked at her in astonishment, his heart seemed to be fighting to burst from his chest, yet he couldn't force any words out at her exclamation. He simply stared numbly at her.

"I've been so bloody in love with you since my second year when you dueled that idiot of a professor Lockhart!" Hermione went on when he didn't respond, feeling as if she didn't tell him everything now she would never be able to do so again, "I thought it was some stupid crush and that it had disappeared when we went on that stupid Horcrux hunt, but then I came back to school two years ago and you were sitting there at the head table looking just so…so…_you_. And I knew then that it was no longer some simple school girl crush."

Hermione's eyes pleaded for him to believe her, and her fingers traced small circles on the insides of his wrists, "You asked me if I wanted to talk about my nightmare, well guess what Severus, _you_ were my nightmare!" Severus inhaled sharply at this, his eyes, which for the first time in her memory were completely unguarded, displayed his hurt, making Hermione sigh in frustration, "Not like that you old Bat," she told him exasperatedly.

She paused, blinking as she tried to push away the fear that had gripped her in the throes of her nightmare, "We were all back in the Shrieking Shack, and you had just been attacked by that horrible snake, you were dying. Draco wasn't hearing my thoughts to him, and Harry and Ron were nowhere to be found. You were in pain, so much pain," Hermione felt a sob jerk through her body and she was surprised to feel tears slipping down her cheek as she slipped back into the dark emotions of her nightmare, and suddenly she couldn't form coherent sentences, "I couldn't save you, you were dead…dead…blood everywhere…dead…I tried, I tried so hard…it was my fault…my fault…"

Severus swallowed harshly, here this woman was, professing her love to him, and telling him of the nightmare she had had, of him dying no less, that made it impossible for her to go back to sleep, and all he could do was stare at her, the words 'I love you Severus!' echoing in his mind.

The world seemed to come rushing back to him at that moment, pulling his attention back to the crying woman at his feet. Not another second passed before he leant down and tugged her up into his lap, cradling her to him, not knowing for certain how to comfort her, but doing the best he could.

Soothingly he murmured what he hoped were reassuring words in her ear, gently pressing kisses to the crown of her head, and rubbing his hand up and down her back and arms. Eventually her sobs lessened, until they ceased to exist, but still she didn't remove her head from where it was nestled between his neck and shoulder.

"Do you believe me?" she softly asked, her warm breath spreading across his neck.

Severus hesitated, _did_ he believe her? Did he _dare_? "Yes," he responded hoarsely, "As unlikely and impossible it is for you to actually have those feelings towards someone like me, I do believe you," he murmured.

Hermione lifted her head to look at him, "What do you mean someone like you?" she gently demanded.

Severus' eyes traced her face, looking at her as longingly as a thirsty man would a tall glass of cold water, "In my experience, people I love have a tendency not to love me back," he eventually replied, his low voice sounding far more hurt than he intended, making him drop his eyes.

Hermione stiffened, simultaneously hearing his subtle declaration of love and an insult he may not have intended. "Let's get one thing straight right now, Severus Snape," she reprimanded sternly, firmly lifting his chin with her hand, "I have not been, am not now, nor will I ever be _anything_ like Lily Evans Potter!" she stated vehemently, causing Severus' eyes to widen, "I wouldn't hold one harsh word, spoken in a time of duress, against you after nearly _six_ years of friendship! I _never_ desert my friends! Not because they say something _stupid_, or because they are in a rival house, or because my boyfriend has decided that it was a nice little sport to pick on them. So if you _ever_ compare me to her again I will personally hex you into next Sunday, are we clear?"

Severus couldn't think of a response, he couldn't bring himself to be irritated with how much of his past she seemed to know, nor could he bother to feel anything other than joy at her vehement defense of him. So he did the only thing he could think of, he kissed her, as deeply and as passionately as he could.

"I love you," he gasped when he pulled away, only after the need for oxygen had become imperative of course, "Merlin help me for doing so but I love you Hermione."

Hermione smiled brightly at his words, she had honestly not ever expected to hear those beautiful, heavenly words from his lips, "I love you too Severus," Hermione's fingers traced over several scars on his chest at once, making him shiver, "Scars and all," she whispered, moving to drop small kisses on his chest, gently tracing each scar she came across with her lips.

"Stay with me tonight?" Severus asked, attempting to make his voice sound stronger than he felt, Severus Snape did not fall weak because of a few kisses after all. Severus couldn't restrain the gasp that escaped as she kissed that one spot she had found previously… so maybe he did. He could feel Hermione smile wickedly against his neck, but still no answer came, tentatively he tried to explain, "I just want to hold you," he reassured, less she think he was being to forward.

Hermione gave a small laugh, "I'll stay with you as long as you'll have me Severus," she told him gently, lifting her head to look him in the eye, "Forever if that's how long it takes," she whispered with a small wink as she dropped her eyes to his lips.

Severus felt a small smirk grace his lips, "I may have to take you up on that witch," he replied before swooping in and kissing her senseless, nothing else mattered, not that blasted head of Hufflepuff, no haunting memories, no scars, nothing; nothing but the woman in his lap, her lips, her hands, her…everything, and the love she was willingly giving him.

Forever, how could he ever want her for any less than that?

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MMG


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters within the book or movies in any way, shape, or form.

A/N: So the reason for the long wait for this chapter is that it took me a while to figure out that I had not actually switched the story status to completed like I thought I had. So as a gift for sticking with the story even after I thought it was done, I forced myself to come up with more…hopefully it lives up to expectations, if not, let me know…maybe there could be more to come…

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The Truth About Scars

Chapter 3

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"I think I found her!" Neville exclaimed as he ran into an anxious looking Remus Lupin and Minerva McGonagall, "She's in the Room of Requirement."

Remus and Minerva shared a quick look before Minerva spoke, "I'll go find Severus, he's searching for her somewhere near the library," she turned to Remus, "You and Neville go see if you can figure out what's going on and try to coax her out of the Room. Send a patronus if you get her to move, otherwise I'll bring Severus to you," she ordered before spinning sharply on her heel and walking off in the direction of the library.

Remus turned to Neville questioningly, "Did Hermione say anything to you when you found her?" he asked as they began the assent to the fifth floor from the Great Hall. He, Neville and Minerva had been the only three that Severus had trusted enough to finally enlist in his search to find the beloved Hermione. Apparently she had been missing since that morning, but Severus hadn't thought anything of it, but when dinner finally rolled around and Hermione still hadn't been spotted by any staff, portraits, ghosts or otherwise, Severus had grown concerned enough to reluctantly involve the three other professors in his search for her.

Neville shook his head, looking slightly embarrassed, but more confident than he had been when he was been back in school, "I didn't actually _talk_ to her," he said evasively, thankful, not for the first time, that it was the summer holidays and that the castle was empty except for the Hogwarts staff, faculty, ghosts and portraits.

They turned up another flight of stairs as Neville began to explain, "I went to Hogsmeade thinking that she might have just got caught up at the book store or something and I ran into Harry, Draco, Luna and Ginny who were out on a double date together. Anyway, I asked them if they had seen her, which they then told me that they had not. So I explained the situation, about how Severus came to us to help him find Hermione, and Draco commented that she must still be in the castle if Severus was unaware of her location," Neville took a deep breath, talking and walking hadn't always been his forte, "Which made sense, considering how close they have been since last November when they finally got together."

Remus snorted at Neville's juvenile way of referring to Hermione and Severus' relationship, it was a bit more then 'got together,' "Anyway," he urged Neville to go on.

"Right," Neville panted, "Harry's response to Draco's comment was to pull out the Marauder's Map from his back pocket—which he apparently carries around everywhere with him—and began to scour it looking for Hermione," Neville shook his head, "He couldn't find her on it, so Ginny brought up that the Room of Requirement doesn't actually show up on the Map, and that Hermione was probably reading in the Room and had simply lost track of time."

Remus shook his own head, concern heavy in his eyes, "Hermione wouldn't just disappear like this without telling anyone, even if she was just off reading a book somewhere. There's something more going on."

Neville nodded, "That's what Luna said, which made Draco comment that if Hermione was hiding in the Room and if I had been unable to find her there previously—it was the first place I checked after Severus asked for our help, but I couldn't find her there—it would be because she had some specific use for the Room and it wouldn't let me find her without me knowing exactly what she had wanted to use the room for. To which Ginny said that it would depend on her mood then what type of room she wanted the Room to be, using Harry trying to catch Draco in our early sixth year as an example. I had noticed yesterday that she had seemed really nervous and this morning she looked about ready to burst into tears," Neville looked at Remus to see if he agreed.

Remus thought back to that morning, he had been a little concerned for Hermione when he saw her this morning, but he had brushed it off as the result of an argument between her and Severus which meant that he really shouldn't stick his nose into it, "I saw it too," he agreed.

"Well, when I told them this Luna said that it probably meant that she would have asked for a replica of the girls lavatory," Neville shook his head in confusion, "Which really doesn't make much sense, but she is a girl and therefore she doesn't make much sense really ever. Anyway, I went upstairs to check and I heard her crying, but I panicked and came to find someone else more qualified to handle a crying, and therefore potentially dangerous, Hermione."

Remus gave a small laugh, "You are a wise man Neville Longbottom, though I don't think Hermione would really hex you if you were just trying to help."

Neville began pacing back and forth in front of the wall, concentrating on what he wanted and soon enough a door appeared, "Yes, well, one can never be too sure."

Walking confidently past the younger man, Remus slapped him on the shoulder with a grin, still finding himself slightly amused that Hermione had chosen a girls loo to hide in, "Hermione?" he called as he entered the room looking around for any sign of the witch.

A serious of quick sniffles brought his attention to the far side of the room. Hesitating for a short moment he and Neville shared a quick look of concern before they both headed in the direction of the sounds, "Hermione?" Remus repeated softer as they drew near the girl who was sitting on the floor with her arms wrapped around her jean clad knees with her head resting on top, "What's wrong Mione?" he asked, using the affectionate nick name that was given to her by Sirius back in her fifth year.

Slowly Hermione lifted her head and looked and Neville and Remus with red watery eyes, it appeared she had been crying for a while if not all day. Without saying a word she nodded her head towards them and looked pointedly over their shoulders. Turning around Remus found a small pile of about five white sticks scattered behind him, bending he picked one up and looked at it closely. The stick was completely white except for the two pink lines and the grey words next to the lines that told him that two lines meant—Remus spun around to look at his friend in surprise.

"You're pregnant?" he asked her gently.

Hermione's face crumpled as Neville gasped, "Yes!" she spat as she burst into tears again.

Remus returned the stick to the ground and nervously scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out how to go forward, "I take it you're not pleased about it?"

Head jerking up Hermione scrambled to her feet, "What are you talking about Remus?" she snapped, "I'm so overwhelmingly ecstatic I don't know what to do with myself!"

"Um," Neville started, but he quickly closed his mouth when Hermione turned her gaze to him. He was thoroughly confused, if she was so happy why did she look so upset? '_Women_' he sighed mentally; clearly unprepared and unsuspecting Hermione to turn and start beating him with a box immediately following his mental comment.

"What do you mean _'women'_?" Hermione shrilled, as she attacked her friend, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Remus was momentarily confused before he recalled that both professors were skilled occlumens and legilimens and decided that Neville must have accidentally thought out loud in his mind (or however that worked). Trying not to laugh as Neville cowered beneath Hermione's blows Remus reached out and grabbed one of Hermione's' flailing arms, "Hermione," he interjected, trying to calm her down and get her attention, "What Neville was probably thinking was that he doesn't understand why you have been hiding out in a girls Lavatory all day crying if you are happy that you are pregnant."

Hermione turned to face Remus, suddenly looking drained, "I _am _incredibly happy," she stated wincing as she looked at Neville and his almost still cowering position before her, "Sorry," she muttered quickly, before returning to her original thoughts, "But I don't know how _Severus_ will react."

"So it is Severus' then?" Neville asked unthinkingly.

Remus winced as Hermione whipped around to face her friend, her hair falling out of the already messy braid it had been in as she glared at him, "Of course it's Severus baby!" she yelled, "Who _else's_ would it be?" this time she actually reached out and whacked his head, not too hard but hard enough that it made him flinch.

Neville held up his hands defensively as he moved to cower behind Remus, "I didn't mean it that way," he moaned shaking his head weakly, "I won't speak again I promise."

Remus actually chuckled this time, but he quickly forced it down as he took in the still serious appearance of his friend in front of him, "So you don't think Severus will want a baby?" he asked to clarify.

"I don't know," Hermione whined, "We never really talked about it. I mean we only talked about getting married once months ago," Hermione slumped against the wall, "What will I do if he doesn't want it?" she whispered.

Stepping forward Remus pulled Hermione into his arms, "You'll rely on your friends to support you, and we will, every step of the way. But Hermione," he lifted her head to look at him, "Don't you think you should find out what he _does_ think before we go jumping to conclusions?" Hermione hesitated, before slowly lowering her eyes and nodding, "And do you really want to tell him in the girls loo?" he asked her gently.

Hermione shook her head and sighed, "I was always going to tell him, I just needed a little while to get myself together."

Neville suddenly spoke up again, "Well that little while ended up lasting all day, Severus has been going out of his mind looking for you, he even pushed down his pride long enough to ask us to help him."

"No," Hermione gasped, "It's only been a few hours," she said in a way that sounded as if she were pleading with them to change what she already knew was reality, "He's not going to be happy," she moaned.

Remus gave a smirk, "And yet you still love him," he laughed, "Now, unless you want him finding you in here with the clear evidence of what you have been doing right over there," Remus gestured to the pregnancy tests behind him, "I suggest you make your way to his quarters, or your own if you prefer, but really, anywhere would be better than a lavatory."

Hermione pushed him lightheartedly, "I'll go to our—" she coughed, choking on her words, when had Severus' quarters become 'ours'? She sighed, probably from the first night they spent together innocently cuddling on his sinfully comfortable bed, she answered her own mental question, "_Severus'_ rooms," she clarified.

Remus gave a humorous nod, pretending not to have heard her slip up. Pulling out his wand he winked at her, "Better get started on getting there," he told her, "I'm about to tell him where you are going and last time I checked the library was closer to his quarters than to the Room of Requirement."

Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to stare at one of the stalls, surprising Remus when it turned into a roaring fire place with a handful of floo powder in a small container next to it. The fireplace looked ridiculously out of place in the bathroom, but Hermione headed toward it none the less, turning one last time to speak to them before disappearing into the green flames, her 'thank you' echoing behind her.

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Stumbling out of the fireplace Hermione turned to look at the clock over the large fireplace to find that she had, in fact, spent the entire day unintentionally hiding. Sighing she moved towards a real bathroom deciding to at least make an attempt to make herself look like she hadn't been crying all day.

Letting out a hopeless groan as she caught sight of the massive ball of curls that surrounded her head, she pulled out her wand and uselessly tried to tame the hair. Eventually she just pulled it back into a messy bun at the nape of her neck. She was about to move to the bedroom to change into something more comfortable for the evening but was stopped by the sound of the door to the living room being slammed open.

"Hermione?" a deep voice called with an undercurrent of concern and panic that would have been undetectable to anyone that didn't know him as well as she did.

Reluctantly stepping out of the bathroom Hermione sighed, "Hello Severus," she murmured, unable to even look at him.

She was surprised therefore, when milliseconds later she found herself being enveloped in a desperate hug, "You're okay," Severus muttered into her head, sounding very much relieved.

Weakly Hermione nodded her head, "I'm sorry to worry you, I really had no idea I had been gone for so long," she told him softly, pulling back to look up at him only to find his lips crushing against hers before she could say anything more.

Just like the first time she had kissed him, her heart stopped beating for several beats only to turn around and begin a steady gallop once it realized it had stopped. Her stomach flipped pleasantly and she felt her body relax completely against his, every curve of her body fitting perfectly with the hard planes of his strong form. A small whimper escaped her as she felt his worry and desperation in his kiss, 'what on earth did he think had happened to her?' her mind absently wondered before all coherent thought left her mind as his tongue began plundering her mouth expertly.

Eventually Severus pulled away and pressed his forehead to hers as they both tried to catch their breath, eventually Hermione broke the silence, "I may have to disappear more often if that's the reaction I get when I come back," she breathed, gently pressing her lips to his once more in a chaste kiss, "I'm sorry I made you worry though," she added, her eyes opening to look up into his own dark eyes.

Severus suddenly looked concerned again, "You've been crying," he murmured, his thumb gently rubbing under her right eye as if he could take away the strain from her eyes with the motion, "What's wrong?" he asked her pulling her to sit on the comfortable couch, "Was it Bothrop and her flock of idiots?" he demanded to know, his voice still gentle. He knew full well that Hermione's life had not been made easy by any stretch of the imagination when they had made their relationship known, and Bothrop and her gang seemed to be at the head of every difficulty in their lives as of late.

No matter how many times the group of witches found themselves on the receiving end of Marauder, DA, and Hermione patented curses (which was just about constantly these days, courtesy of Lupin, Longbottom and Hermione respectively) they never seemed to understand that they were simply victims of their own stupidity. More than once he had found Hermione crying tears of frustration over the three professors, though not on her own behalf, like she should have, but on his own.

To be completely honest another ten minutes and the carefully calculated calm that he pretended to have whenever the Bothrop and her cronies were around would have snapped and he would have found himself doing something truly unpleasant to them to find out what they had done to his Hermione.

Hermione startled him out of his thoughts by shaking her head, "No, it was nothing they did," she said softly, her eyes not lifting to meet his.

Gently Severus placed his fingers under her chin and lifted her head to look at him, still partially surprised that anyone, let alone this beautiful witch, would willingly allow him to touch them, "Tell me who made you cry love and I promise you I'll make them pay," he stated venomously, his eyes showing his possessiveness towards her, no one messed with things or people he considered his and got away with it.

Again Hermione shook her head, "It's probably just something silly that I needn't have worried about," she murmured, placing her lips against his cheek softly before she snuggled down against his chest comfortably.

The two sat in silence for several minutes, both trying to come up with a way to speak to the other. Finally Hermione broke the pseudo easy silence, "What would you say if I told you I was pregnant?" she softly asked, quickly squeezing her eyes shut after the words escaped her, even though he couldn't see her face.

Unconsciously Severus felt his body stiffen, "I would ask you if you were serious," he eventually responded in a low voice.

"And if I told you I was?"

Severus sat up and turned Hermione towards him, trying to fight off the impending emotions that were trying to force their way into his heart, "Are you?" he asked her guardedly.

Hermione's eyes were now open wide as she stared back at him in terror before forcing herself to nod. Severus sat still in stunned silence for several long minutes not saying anything, the only sign that he had heard her was the look in his eyes that told Hermione he was thinking hard. Just as she thought he was about to say something Hermione felt her heart begin to break as he jerked to his feet and swept out of _their_ quarters.

She stared at the door dumbly for several long stunned minutes before she became aware of the wetness that was once again on her cheeks. Wiping furiously at the tears that came unbidden to her eyes Hermione was frustrated to find that they only came quicker the more she swiped at them, eventually devolving into her forcing herself to her feet and to _their_ room where she pulled off her day clothes and tugged one of Severus few muggle t-shirts on. Numbly she stumbled the remaining feet over to _their_ bed where she curled up in the fetal position and finally let herself sob.

The feeling of emptiness was overwhelming and her chest ached in a way she had never felt before. Not a coherent thought made its way through her mind as she sobbed body shaking sobs, clutching his pillow to her chest.

A while later, who knew how long, Hermione's tears were all dried up though her eyes ached to release more. She stared stonily at the wall in front of her, her back to the doorway to _their_ room, not really thinking just trying for once in her life to make any and all thoughts in her mind just stop. That was when she heard the door to _their_ quarters open quietly and soft footsteps make their way to just outside _their_ door.

"Hermione?" _his_ voice softly called through the door before the handle turned and the door opened inwards; Hermione didn't turn around. _His _footsteps moved toward her quickly, "Oh Hermione, _no_, no, that's not at all what I meant," Severus reached out his hand to touch her shoulder causing her to jerk away from him to stand on the other side of the bed, the despair she felt earlier turning into hurt and anger.

"Then what _did _you mean Severus?" she snapped, "What else was I supposed to think? I tell you I'm _pregnant_ with _your child_ and you just get up and _leave_? Without a word to me, might I add! How _else_ was I supposed to view the situation?"

Severus lowered his head in shame for a moment, "I'm sorry, I just—"

"You just what?" Hermione exclaimed, "Felt terrified? Because I sure as Salazar do! I can't just walk away from this like you can Severus! I'm so absolutely bloody _terrified_ and you just up and _left!"_ suddenly the tears were back and Hermione found herself collapsing on the bed again.

Severus stepped around the bed as quickly as he could without making an idiot of himself, "Hermione, I didn't leave because I'm upset," he told her, pain clearly in his voice, "I didn't mean to hurt you like this," his fingers cautiously reached out to wipe away her tears, prepared for her to smack them away at any second, "I never wanted to make you cry; please don't cry Love," he murmured softly.

"Why did you leave?" she asked him brokenly, her hands reaching up to clutch his one traitorously.

Severus met her eyes with his, carefully searching them as if looking for answers to questions she didn't know, "I went to get this," he lovingly told her, reaching into his cloak pocket and pulling out a small lovely silver velvet box that had a green vine etched all around the box. Slowly Severus opened the box to reveal a lovely gold ring with a large beautiful green emerald gemstone set in the middle of a cluster of diamonds on either side of the gem, "I have been meaning to do this for a while now," he told her lowly as he lifted the ring from the box, "But when you told me that you…that _we_ are going to have a baby I couldn't wait any longer."

Hermione's eyes hadn't left the absolutely gorgeous ring and Severus swallowed nervously, "I love you Hermione," he said softly, "And even though I just found out an hour ago that we are going to be parents soon, I already love our baby more than I ever thought possible. I won't say being married to me will be easy, because it most likely won't," he gave a humorless chuckle, "As we just found when I stupidly left you thinking I didn't want the baby," he shook his head as his eyes made contact with hers once more, "How could I not want anything that was both a part of you and of me?" he asked her rhetorically, "But even though it will be difficult to be married to me, will you marry me anyway?"

Nearly groaning as tears came gliding out of her eyes once more, though as a result of different emotions this time, Hermione gave a short laugh and nodded her head, "Yes," she choked out, her eyes moving from his back to the ring that Severus was now holding out to her, "Yes," she repeated as he placed the ring on her finger, "But if you _ever _ run out on me like that again the saying 'hell hath no fury' will suddenly have a whole new meaning!"

Severus smiled, one of the rare face splitting grins that he normally fought with everything in him, "I promise, and again I apologize for my temporary lack of sanity."

With a large grin on her own face Hermione launched off the bed and into his arms kissing every inch of him that she could, laughing as he picked her up and spun her around.

This was her Severus, the man no one but her ever got to see, not that she wanted to share him; the father of their child and the man who owned her heart so completely that she sometimes felt that she would lose herself if he ever left her.

"I can't believe it," Severus murmured several minutes and kisses later.

Hermione pulled back to look at him even as her fingers deftly unbuttoned the zillions of buttons on his shirt, "Believe what?" she asked him breathlessly as he attacked her neck with a primal fervor.

"I actually owe Lupin money," he groaned, "You actually said yes like he said you would."

Hermione paused what she was doing, "You thought I would say no?"

Severus lifted his head as he lowered her onto her back on the bed, gently smoothing a few errant curls away from her face, "Well we had only been together for a few weeks at the time, and Lupin told me that if I were to ask you to marry me you would say yes, he bet me twenty galleons. I told him it was unlikely, it had only been a few weeks after all, but he said whenever I asked you, whether the next day, or years from then your answer would still be the same."

Hermione laughed and gave him a slow lingering kiss full of promises of what was to come, "Oh I don't know about that," she jokingly told him, "There is only so long a girl will wait to hear that question," she laughed at the surprised look on his face, "But have no fear Severus," she assured him, "I have a lot of patience, I would have waited a long time for you to ask me."

Severus kissed her, "And are you glad you didn't have to wait that long?" he teased her, chuckling as he felt her tear his shirt from his torso.

"Mmhmm," Hermione hummed, distracted by kissing him once more, "Ecstatic."

"I love you Hermione," he murmured into her ear as he pressed a kiss to her earlobe.

"I love you too Severus."

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